2003428

Jen has a t-shirt with that saying on it, it's a good reminder to pay attention to veiled insults. By the way, I like the way you did your hair before! Geek stuff: I'm in a situation where I've got to allow a whole bunch of users to change their password. I don't want to set up something web-based due to security concerns. I've looked into making their shells /usr/bin/passwd and setting up an ssh client on a machine in their office. The difficulty is the limitations on what they can change their password to by using that program. From the man page for passwd: passwd will try to prevent you from choosing a really bad password, but it isn't foolproof; create your password wisely. Don't use something you'd find in a dictionary (in any language or jargon). Don't use a name (including that of a spouse, parent, child, pet, fantasy character, famous person, and location) or any variation of your personal or account name. Don't use accessible information about you (such as your phone number, license plate, or social security number) or your environment. Don't use a birthday or a simple pattern (such as backwards, followed by a digit, or preceded by a digit. Instead, use a mixture of upper and lower case letters, as well as digits or punctuation. When choosing a new password, make sureit's unrelated to any previous password. Use long passwords (say 8 characters long). You might use a word pair with punctuation inserted, a passphrase (an understandable sequence of words), or the first letter of each word in a passphrase. These principles are partially enforced by the system, but only partly so. Vigilence on your part will make the system much more secure. The difficulty is that there is very little that apparently can be done to choose the restrictions for the passwords that are chosen, and I just KNOW there will be users that will absolutely refuse to choose passwords that are a mix of lower case, upper case, number and punctuation. If they do choose one, they will rapidly forget it. So I'm kind of stuck. Any thoughts? Posted by Greg @ 08:39 PM PST [Link]

2003426

Ok, lots to cover! I have about 15 minutes to do this, so I gotta speed-blog. Woke up this morning and headed down across the border to Bellingham, for the Northwest Linux conference (see previous entry for link). Was a nice trip down, and I headed first to Bellis Fair mall to Sears so I could use the gift cards that we got as wedding presents from Jen's relatives. After searching around I bought a DVD/VHS player (MP3 capable), a ghetto blaster for the bedroom (MP3 capable), a rice cooker, some batteries, and a set of kitchen knives (plus block and cutting board). Pretty decent haul for a small amount of money. I also saw an Akai 1200 DVD player there for quite cheap ($49US), which is what my friend JD has (some versions of it can be made regionless). I'm not sorry we got the DVD/VHS combo though. Funny thing about that is that we were going on the assumption that our VCR was screwed because it was dropped by yours truly during our move. It may be screwed still, but after buying the DVD/VHS player I discovered that the cable connecting it to the TV had a bent-over centre lead. The VCR might be fine and we've not watched tapes for a couple months because of not checking the cable. This is a warning to you. Never assume it's not something simple and physical. Reminds me that yesterday I did much the same thing in the car...while dropping by the auto parts place I decided to check to see if I could get a bulb to replace the in the interior overhead light. Ripped off the cover, touched the bulb and it lit. Turns out the bulb had just worked its way loose. Always check your connections! Anyway, after shopping I headed to the conference and met out with JD, Miss G, and a few other geek friends and had a few minutes before Jon "Maddog" Hall's presentation on "Selling Open Source" to chat and eat hotdogs. Unfortunately, the hotdogs took up the time that would have been nice to have to actually be able to get in the room to see the speech. Instead, I wandered around getting various schwag (a couple bumper stickers and a Pogo Linux t-shirt and a Knoppix bootable CDROM linux distro) and buy some stuff (a Tux fleece vest and t-shirt from Computer Gear). Maddog's speech was excellent, from what I could hear at least. Some interesting points...in his estimation pirated software is not free because "you don't get support, you don't get updates, you don't get all the things that buying software gets you. There is a logical leap that I don't agree with there, but for whatever reason pirated software is pretty dumb, for the reasons above; and that if you are going to use something, pay for it. If you don't want to pay for it, don't use it. The one area that I have trouble with my own argument is that there are lots of software packages that companies want you to use, but are prohibitively expensive. In order to use it, you have to learn it, which means you have to have a copy of it, which means you have to either buy it or pirate it. If you can't afford it, you have one option: steal it. Hopefully your piracy ends up allowing you to learn it so that you can get a job using it so you can eventually own a copy. If the software company cracks down on piracy in that case they are likely cutting off their own nose. After the meeting, a quick beer at Archer's Ale House in Fairview (nice place, hard to find...it's a "basement pub" sort of thing). I had a 'Brutal Bitter', which is definitely both. I liked it, and finished it, but it wouldn't be something I'd order all the time. The first sip is a shock and a half. I left JD and friends playing 7-player Hearts at the table and headed back. The car needed gas, which I was happy to provide, since it was incredibly cheap there. I spent the equivalent of $12 CAD for an amount that would ordinarily cost me $20 CAD. I noticed that two gas stations across the street from each other had prices varying 4 cents from each other. You would never see this in Canada. There may not be collusion between gasoline companies in the US like there so obviously is in Canada. Check Gastips.com for more info there. It was time for me to put in some fuel treatment for fuel injector cleaning (actually, the first time I have ever done so) and managed to spill it down the side of the car. The bottle says, "If spilled, wash with water IMMEDIATELY", so I did so. Bottled water was all I had. Nothing's too good for my piece of crap Ford Aspire. Getting hungry by that point so I drove over to Burger King and ordered me a Double Whopper Value Meal. In Canada, that's a whole choice...not other options. In the US though there is that in three parts...Regular, Large, and King. I ordered large, which is a hell of a lot of food. I fed a lot of fries to the seagulls (who were afraid of getting too close to my car) and the crows (who stood on my hood begging. I guess maybe seagulls considered humans potential carnivores. Personally I'd rather eat a crow than a stinking ugly seagull. The red eyes throw me off. Now here's where I admit I am a dumbass. I left my lights on while I ate and killed my battery. Luckily I drive a standard and can push-start my little car. I pushed it all over the parking lot without any success in getting it started. The reason was that I forgot to turn the damnable key on. A kindly large red-haired man with lots of arm tattoos came out of BK and gave me a hand and got it started fine once he said "make sure the key is on" . I never admitted that it was my own damned fault (note to Jason, who will read this: Yeah, like you've never done it!). Quick trip to the border after that. Once I explained to the border guy what I had done for the day and assured him that I had no weapons (I didn't think to mention the knives I bought), he gave me a card that said "B15" and told me to go inside. I had to pay GST and PST on the stuff I bought, which is stupid, to be honest. I don't have to pay PST on stuff I buy in Alberta, why the heck should I have to on stuff I buy in a whole 'nother country? And what authority does the Canadian government have to charge GST on stuff I bring in from Washington retailers? Seems to me like "Free Trade" is a sham, or at least it only applies to businesses. So that's my day...after I got home Jen and I got an ice cream and rented some DVDs at a local shop ($4.56 for 3 DVDs for a week - nice deal, though a small selection). We're settling down to watch them now and I am much later that I intended because of blogging this. I'm outta here, have a good day! Posted by Greg @ 10:12 PM PST [Link]

2003425

You know, I never paid any attention to the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven. I had no idea it was so...impossible to understand. A sample: If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now, It's just a spring clean for the May queen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run There's still time to change the road you're on. And it makes me wonder. Well damn....it makes me wonder too. Like what the hell he's talking about. Off to LinuxFest Northwest tomorrow with JD, and hoping to run into Jon 'Maddog' Hall, who is speaking there. Truth be told, this is the first linux conference I've had a chance to go to and I am quite unsure what the outcome will be. Kind of tempted to dig out my old 486 laptop and at least make some notes to bring back here, but maybe I'll just use paper or Visor. If you seek me I'll probably be the guy laughing at JD when people are asking for autographs :) Not to go into details, but there is such a huge sinking feeling I get when I make a screwup at work. Today I did so, and believe I have recovered from it. Still though, it makes me start off a train of thought like, "oh hell, I hope this doesn't blow up big; I like working here and with these folks". I'm reasonably sure I am good at my job, but doubt creeps in when there is a stupid mistake. Posted by Greg @ 10:06 PM PST [Link]

2003424

There's one thing Paypal is good for...forgetting that you have money when you feel like you're broke. I sold some stuff a while back on eBay and never used the money I got from it until now. I used half and bought a couple kites: 1 - the Super Chute and 2 - the Stealth Tropic. Worthwhile I think. I wanted another kite that could be folded up small and taken anywhere, and the frameless Chute will do well for that. I'm interested in seeing how a frameless dual line kite works. Had a thought today that for the first time I realized that I am not of an 'age class'. I'm not a young adult, I'm not middle-aged. Like the Pursuit of Happiness song, "I'm an adult now". With all the problems therein. Kinda tempted to start wearing trenchcoats and dyeing my hair again. Or buy a Volvo, some plaid polyester pants and a sportcoat. Posted by Greg @ 10:54 PM PST [Link]

2003423

Hate taxes. Hate them with a passion. That's why I routinely have done them every two or three or four years instead of once a year like normal people. They make no sense! If the government is going to take percentage of my income, and they know what I make because my employer files my records directly with them, then why do I have to fill out a stupid 20 page document once a year? Couldn't they just figure that out and if by some miracle my employer overpaid for me send me a tidy little cheque at the end of the year? And if I didn't pay enough, then send me the proof of that and allow me to work on catching up? No, they want to cause annoyance and pain. I am a fairly smart guy, but how do I know if I want to claim a Mining Exploration Credit? How do I know if I have to pay Logging Taxes? How in the world do they expect the average dumbass that doesn't know enough to lock his car or check his own oil or wipe his shoes on the mat to know this!? It's all in the name of keeping the citizenry quiet and docile. It's like playing a bloody lottery, filling out the ticket (tax form) and praying that you win (a refund). While people are working all that out the politicos can take trips to the coast of Spain to "see what other countries are doing about their dying tree frog populations". Guess I'm heading to H&R Block tomorrow. Dammit. Posted by Greg @ 10:41 PM PST [Link]

2003422

Lots of things! Point form time again to get them all covered! Spend some good time with the kite yesterday with Jen and Miss V. The best part of my kite is that it really handles being slammed into the ground repeatedly well. There's a lot of interesting things you can do with a two line kite that are just impossible with a single-line. Things like scary the crap out of your friends by swinging the kite low above their head while it shrieks against the wind. I played for a while scraping the grass with a wingtip, and hovering at the edge of the wind. Also just spent some time trying to get the kite to make as much noise as possible. We got balcony planters! It ended up much easier and cheaper just to buy the things from Home Despot. I could have made some, but there really was no points. We got cedar, when I would only have been able to do pine. We got adjustable metal braces where I was going to have to buy and bend metal as best I could. And the pre-fab ones ended up about 2/3rds the cost. Do yourself a non-favour and look up "cosplay site:co.jp" on Google. You'll spend hours marvelling at the very bizarre world of japanese youth (mostly female) who spend all their time, money and energy dressing up like the characters from anime cartoons or japanese styled computer/console games. I'm not sure how I came across this, though during that I discovered that 'site:co.jp' (or other country TLD) trick. Tomorrow is Wing Night at the local pub...the Buck'n'Ear. I think this is going to become our occasional Wednesday night fare. I've been working to find a decent PHP/MySQL web-based calendar for use in coordinating group social activities (specifically, the geeks that inhabit our weekly RPG session). They all seem to be missing some important functionality...specifically, the ability for the people involved to go edit the data with being the administrator of the calendar. I know that this is quite feasible, since I have written PHP apps that edit the data in a MySQL db, I just can't see why people don't include this option from the start. Strange dreams last night, and the night before...at various times they have involved: llama farming, gardening, being female, being super-powered, taking care of my ancient parents (which were not my real-life parents but looked surprisingly like my fathers parents), finding coins, being on boats, and having trouble deciding what is really important in life. I've always been an 'intense dreamer'. Dreams for me are very much like movies, and although when I am on my way to waking up I can control my actions in them, they still are overwhelmingly played out by my subconscious on its own schedule. Ever considered making your own hot sauce? Posted by Greg @ 09:54 PM PST [Link]

2003420

Obviously, a bit of a new layout today...still some rough edges, the comment pages are still that horrid green that I put in there originally just so I'd eventiually get around to getting rid of it. Please let me know what you think, if you care. Lots of work on Jen's application today. It seems that every time we get close to finishing it we either find that there is a bunch more to do, or the government changes the forms and rules. We're close...but still not so close that we can sit by and wait. As part of the process we compiled 36 photographs of 'proof' of our relationship...We've got everything from the first week we met and went on a cruise to Alaska to our first kiss as husband and wife to recent pics of us in the park near our home. Thank $diety for digital technology. Posted by Greg @ 10:23 PM PST [Link]

2003419

Ok, the list is considerably down...not perfect, but better. Here's what I am thinking I will spend my time on: kiting - I went and bought myself a kite....a nice one. A Beetle 2100, to be exact. It's amazing how much more you can enjoy kites with a decent one in your hands. Two lines is much, much better than one. A kite with this kind of control is like ballet in some ways. Yesterday and today I flew it, learning how to guide it to make sounds (like a mechanized dune worm...that's the best explanation I can give) and perform various stunts (pulling it out of stalls, running figure-8s, landing and taking off, swinging low along the ground). Definitely something I want to keep doing. Jen bought a kite today too...a nice big phoenix. This also gives me a great reason to get into the park for an hour or two. This blog - for purely selfish reasons I will continue to write here. I enjoy it, but more so it helps me think. It clears my head of the daily crap that accumulates so that I canmove on to more important things. Walking - along with everything else, I am wanting badly to be in better shape. In my case it's a return to better shape. Zen - see #3, except mental instead of physical. Esperanto - I'm going to finish my lessons, and see how things go from there. It's an interesting exercise anyhow. Archery/fiction writing/fishing/guitar - when time permits. Guitar was an especially difficult choice...it's one of those things that takes a long time to get good at, and when you take a break from it you lose so much. People say playing the guitar is addictive, it's a musical monkey on your back. We went to Costco in Richmond today. Mistake #1 was to go to Costco on a weekend. Mistake #2 was to go to the Richmond one where the crowds are always much worse than anywhere else and no one can drive a car, nevermind a shopping cart. Mistake #3 was shopping at Costco on the Saturday sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It was a frigging madhouse. I saw, for the first time in my obviously culturally naive life, a jar of "gefilte fish". The dictionary definition is 'balls or cakes of seasoned minced fish usually simmered in a fish stock or baked in a tomato sauce'. In Costco it looked pickled and it looked...absolutely revolting. We watched Road to Perdition tonight. Excellent movie. Give it a try, perhaps. Posted by Greg @ 11:05 PM PST [Link]

Please read this and send on the link. This is much more important than being "anti-war" or "pro-troops". Some text from this 'pro-free speech speech": A famous middle-aged rock-and-roller called me last week to thank me for speaking out against the war, only to go on to tell me that he could not speak himself because he fears repercussions from Clear Channel. "They promote our concert appearances," he said. "They own most of the stations that play our music. I can't come out against this war." And here in Washington, Helen Thomas finds herself banished to the back of the room and uncalled on after asking Ari Fleischer whether our showing prisoners of war at Guantanamo Bay on television violated the Geneva Convention. [...] As we applaud the hard-edged realism of the opening battle scene of "Saving Private Ryan," we cringe at the thought of seeing the same on the nightly news. We are told it would be pornographic. We want no part of reality in real life. We demand that war be painstakingly realized on the screen, but that war remain imagined and conceptualized in real life. [...] We lay the continuance of our democracy on your desks, and count on your pens to be mightier. Millions are watching and waiting in mute frustration and hope - hoping for someone to defend the spirit and letter of our Constitution, and to defy the intimidation that is visited upon us daily in the name of national security and warped notions of patriotism. Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and criticize their actions define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy's defeat. These are challenging times. There is a wave of hate that seeks to divide us -- right and left, pro-war and anti-war. I'm not an American. I don't gain the direct benefits of the US Constitution, the First Amendment, etc. I have similar protections that were heavily influenced in their creation by what was gained in the US. It saddens me greatly to see the US slide into a group of the powerful removing the rights that the weak but strong-as-a-group fought for. If you are an American, bold and proud of what your people created, stand as a group and continue to fight that revolution. Posted by Greg @ 10:47 AM PST [Link]

2003417

Using Yahoo's random URL server, I found the food insects newsletter. In a strange coincidence I was just talking to a coworker about eating insects because Richmond community education has a course on it (PDF). Best of all, it's free. Only one session though, Jen points out that there may be considerably less interest in a second bug-eating session. Thanks to all who've responded to my last post, both here and on UF. Decisions haven't been quite made yet, more input is very welcome. A few things have been discounted (for now) since a] they cost more money and time than I currently have and b] they'll grow tiresome. One very useful comment was made that a few things could be nicely connected into one activity: geocaching + walking/hiking + cryptography (as a mentally stimulating activity) could = orienteering. Strangely enough, back in Army Cadets as a teenager I spent a good lot of time on this. Worth considering. Posted by Greg @ 10:02 PM PST [Link]

2003416

Yeah, I'm going on about this topic once again. Below are the things that I am currently interested in, but never seem to have time for. I'm asking for a favour from the world here, just help me pick something to focus on for a bit. The huge assortment of things is annoying me like you wouldn't believe and is putting me in a foul mood (Jen can attest to that). Kites Sterling Engines Guitar Water rockets Creating bad art Starting a small part-time home business Digital photography Geocaching (need GPS) Small woodworking projects Mid-distance walking Metal detector treasure hunting Daily Zen meditation Cryptography Learning to sail (requires paying for a course) Building an LCD video projector Learning harmonica Continuing the work I've already done on OmniCode Continuing to work on Intl. Democracy in Action Day Electric transportation Writing fiction Becoming a better Perl coder Becoming a better PHP coder Learning Esperanto (on lesson 4 of 10) Building miniature terrains Archery Sustainable living Fishing This blog There are others, but those are the main ones. If anyone has some opinions on this, I could use them. I like to think I'm a pretty smart guy, but I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything by splitting myself across all of this. Thanks! Posted by Greg @ 09:34 PM PST [Link]

2003414

Thanks all for goading me into building my own window screens :) I will be doing so this coming weekend. You are right. I am lazy. :-) I'm also going to build an inner-hanging balcony planter box this weekend. I have a bad tendency to say I'm going to build something and not doing it. The computer is instrumental in sucking my time and my life away and I've got to get off of it more and wasting my time less. There's lots left to do around here and I feel crappy when I don't get it done. Maybe Jen will write me some honey-do lists? Had a bit of a run-in with an online loser today who was writing things akin to "my dog has the right to run around having random sex with people's pets and it's their fault for not spaying their females and so if they end up with too many puppies that have to be killed, well so be it". In the end he said "oh, I was just joking" after a number of people including me got suitably outraged. I don't think he was joking, or even trolling, quite honestly. I think he was just being a selfish, irresponsible jerk. That kind of attitude is why Jen volunteers at a cat shelter because not enough people care enough about the animals they profess to 'love' to take care of them properly. Way too many animals die. Personally, I'd like to see any irresponsible pet owner eat the animals that get killed because of their stupidity. I bet the stupidity would stop quickly. Posted by Greg @ 09:22 PM PST [Link]

2003412

I guess it's nice to waste a Saturday. Today we stayed home late, then went out with a list of things to buy/do and managed to spend all day not getting any of them bought/done. Then we came home, were too lazy to cook so we ordered pizza. Then I worked a little on a some miniature terrain, but it has to sit to dry for a while. One of the things that are difficult to buy...window screens for our new place. The largest pre-built screens the local hardware store has are 48" tall. Our windows are 50". We really don't want too many gaps as we hear that the mosquitos are awful here in the summer. I think a farther hardware store will have more selection, so maybe tomorrow. Another...boxes. 15"w x 19"d x 9"h, specifically, or reasonably close. We want to use them in our Ikea Ivar desk unit to make drawers. It seems like we can always find two applicable dimensions, but never 3. It also seems that the closer to our ideal dimensions, the move expensive. We found ones today that would be ok if we moved the shelves further apart, but they were $17 each! Of course my immediate reaction to problems like this is "I can build something", but I never get around to doing so. My own personal failing is to have lots of ideas but never working towards final completion of them. Too many things interest me. Posted by Greg @ 10:03 PM PST [Link]

2003411

These are a continuing list of things that as you age, you will realize. No one ever gives these bits of advice, but I like you, so you can trust me on these: If you do drugs (and I'm not going to say whether you should or not), buy them from someone you trust, not someone on the street...even pot can be tainted • When changing the diaper on a boy make sure you cover the bits that spray • If something is so important to you that you can't live without it, throw it away • If someone is so important to you that you can't live without them...find out if they feel the same way...if so, never let them go • Someone else did it first • Nothing technical is as hard as it seems • Nothing simple-looking is as easy as it looks • If it has sharp teeth, even if it's cute, leave it alone • The rat owns the hole, the bull owns the field, the bear owns the forest - you can pretend otherwise, but it wouldn't take much to teach you the error of your ways • The chance of getting a full house is nearly the same as getting a 7-high...it all depends on what you're shooting for • Just remember that the Mon-Fri 9-5 workweek is less than two hundred years old; things that are old are not necessarily worse • Immaturity is temporary but stupidity is perpetual • When you get older you wish you worked hard when you were younger so you could take it easier now • Anonymity is a good thing but don't assume that it means you can do bad things and never get caught • As much as you feel like it, never ask someone to marry you while you are in bed • You are likely to experience a fire in your home at one point or another; if something is important to you it shouldn't be in the back of the storage room • Sometimes it's worth buying pre-made salads so that you eat salad • If a friend asks for help moving, give it unconditionally • You are conditioned to think that a man getting hit in the testicles is funny - don't assume that humour is based on what other people think is funny • Remember a clean joke and tell it to family • Remember a dirty joke and tell it friends • Remember a dumb joke and tell it to kids • Remember to laugh when people tell you a joke • Get out of the way when the door opens • Talk to the people who make or deliver your food, even if it's not someone who lives with you • A pawn can take a stupid king • Things that happened 1000 years ago still affect you today; Don't expect the things that happened yesterday to be forgotten • Every so often get your keychain out and reorganize - the direction they face, the order of them, how they are separated - it can make a difference in your morning and evening annoyance level. Posted by Greg @ 10:05 PM PST [Link]

200349

...and strangely enough it was exactly what I expected. You see, I don't like war. I don't like it one solitary bit. But I have never doubted the horrors of Saddam. I've heard from Iraqi's on TV and radio that talked about the 'disappearing' family members and the bribery and all the little things that Iraqi citizens had to do to get along in their world. I used to work with an Iraqi who stole a horse and rode it to Greece (via Turkey) to get away from Saddam...you don't do that just because you disagree with the leader's politics unless those politics are likely to get you killed. Today, seeing the Iraqi's jumping up and down on the statue of Saddam...well, I could see the jubilation in their eyes. There were men on the street saying "thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush!" and giving a big thumbs-up. There were others smacking portraits and statues with their shoes...a huge insult in the Arab world. These people are not faking their appreciation of freedom, they are revelling in it. Further to that they showed looting...but I feel it's pretty justified...the now-dying regime (and the sanctions against it) was forcing these people into poverty while the powerful were living opulent lives. It's time the the money that bought those gold-rimmed toilets went into the hands of the people. Posted by Greg @ 09:22 PM PST [Link]

200347

Joey DeVilla from The Adventures of AccordionGuy in the 21st Century writes: Me: I'm not kidding. C'mon, if you're really a Web programmer, you'd know this. This is straight out of chapter one of "Web Forms for Dummies". New Girl: I refuse to answer this question. Such a simple question...it's...it's insulting! Me: Answer it, and you'll shoot such a big hole in Whistleblower's story that I'd have to believe you. And trust me, right now, the evidence makes you look like the liar.. New Girl: I won't answer it! I know the answer, but you still won't believe me if I give it to you! Me: You know, if you accused me of not being a programmer, I'd be dropping mad computer science on your head. I'd be saying "Get me in front of a machine! I'll write 'Hello World' in half a dozen languages!" New Girl: But I'm not you! Me: And you're not a programmer. You're a damned liar. Crazy stuff. The more I think of it, the more I see how many utterly broken people there are in the world. And also the more I realize that there is nothing anyone can do for people like this. Interestingly enough, I've only met one completely compulsive liar so far in this world. Certainly I've met many people who lie, but compulsive liars are one step beyond that. Also coincidentally...the C.L. that I knew was named Joey. The way he stopped being around my group of friends is that one of us lent him a bunch of money. That person now considers that the best money he ever spent. Posted by Greg @ 09:39 PM PST [Link]

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Ok, so you managed to nail one thing to another thing and some poor schmuck is going to buy it. You accept $30 for it. You haven't created any money, since that is a finite resource...but you have created $30 worth of 'wealth'. If the art buyer managed to bring it to a gallery and some other art buyer picks it up for $530, then $500 worth of wealth is created...no money is created. Then you die, and the value of the two things nailed together skyrockets to $1,000,530. Now an additional million bucks worth of wealth is created! Cool! No more money is available, since this is all based on what someone decided something is worth. The government, seeing that there are more objects worth something that there is money available to buy it, prints an extra $1,000,530. Cool! Now there is really money out there to give a real value to the wealth that your art has created. Then the nail you used rusts and the objet d'art is worthless. It can't be sold and although throughout the above product had shifted around a whole buttload of money, it is done creating wealth. Suddenly there is much more money in the economy than there are goods that are worth that money. The government decides that as the money is used up and returned (paper money wears out) they will take $1,000,530 out of the economy by not replacing it. Unfortunately, you and the art buyer(s) now have more expendable cash and are using it to buy cool stuff. The people who sell cool stuff up their prices, knowing that you are flush and the general rules of thumb is "what the markets will bear". This is inflation and things cost more, except that the government didn't plan for this and now we're all caught in a situation where our dollars are worth less and the prices are higher and there are less cool things to buy (ie. the art thing you created out of two things and a nail). Now shift all of this over to the dot-com economy for a while...a bunch of people created things that were crafted out of flimsy nails (dot-com corporations) that quickly gained value and then were suddenly snuffed out. The money that was put into them was compensated for by the government printing $'s. A bunch of people got out of the dot-com economy while the money was good (don't believe for a second that no one came away wealthy....just remember how much domain names that were purchased for $70 from Network Solutions were sold to dumbass execs for millions in investor money and that the original owners of those domains bought the sailboat they always wanted and that the crappy execs walked away with $500k/year salaries) and now things are more expensive for all of us because the government has to be reactive to these sorts of wealth gains and losses and therefore when the bottom fell out they destroyed money. See the original art example if you got lost. So Mr. Government Economist is sitting in his white tower thinking about what he can do to turn this around...well...the government can always create something out of nothing and sell it for their own money! They can create a war and sell it to arms manufacturers and tank designers and people who can make a cheese sandwich last 80 years and still be edible. They can purchase these services for money that they print, thereby pumping cash into the economy and giving us a good ol' time spending it. But eventually that war will end (ie. the object of value is destroyed) and suddenly we are all holding our fattened stomachs wondering how we are going to afford the food to fill it. We can have another war after this one, and maybe things will be good for a while...but eventually there isn't going to be a war and things will start depressing and inflation will rise as the government stops printing money to try and get into balance again. Maybe we should find another way. Is my reasoning flawed? Oh...and by the way, if you'd care to buy this article I created, for $30, I'm sure something can be arranged. Posted by Greg @ 09:25 PM PST [Link]

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Croissants. Un-American baked goods. The hiring to rebuild Iraq. French, Germans, Russians, Syrians need not apply. All your base are terrorists. A dumb April Fool's Day joke turns 7 American citizens into terrorists. Oh well, the US plays 'follow the leader', which means mimicing a moron. And one cool link. Posted by Greg @ 09:04 PM PST [Link]

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I came home today pretty late, and ended up watching the last half of DonnyDonnie Darko (thanks Jen) with Jen. It deals with a number of "what is reality?" topics: the trials of being schizophrenic, time travel, parallel universes, God. Well worth seeing, but if you are one of those people who end a movie by saying, "well that was too weird for me", don't bother. You aren't going to 'get it' anyway. Think of it along the same vein as the ending to The Sixth Sense. Geekly stuff: How to add a new (IDE) hard drive to a linux box Install the drive 'fdisk /dev/hdx', where x is a, b, c...p depending on how many drives you already have in the box (ie. the first HD is hda, second is hdb) Make a partition (n) or more than one, write your changes to the partition table (w) Format it to the file type you want with 'mke2fs /dev/hdxD' where D is the number of the partition you created in the previous step (ie. first partition is hdc1, second is hdc2) Edit /etc/fstab and create an entry for those partitions (ie. '/dev/hdc1 /mnt/mp3s auto auto,user 0 0'). This step is optional, though if you skip it you will have to mount the partition as root every time you want to use it Reboot to test the above step Posted by Greg @ 10:17 PM PST [Link]

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We discovered today that there are chicken noises in the grocery store too! No pigs or sheep so far! Well, the house is in much better shape due to the tender machinations of Jen. She did an amazing job in the bedroom. I don't know what it is about clutter, but I feel very claustrophobic when surrounded by messes. It's not like I haven't lived in them (or contributed) in my living-with-my-friends bachelor days, but that's definitely something I outgrew. I think that may be the case for the majority of people...they start out rebellious slobs then slowly shift to just getting sick and tired of pizza boxes, greasy carpets and the pile of underwear in the corner. Nowadays I like being able to open the fridge and identify everything in there at a glance (and not making mistakes...there's nothing like thinking that somehow the bean sprouts migrated to the chinese food container. Moo Goo Gai Puke!) Posted by Greg @ 10:46 PM PST [Link]

LINKS and STUFF

Aspectus - This is Illiad's (of Userfriendly fame) other project, which is like Slashdot in some ways and like a personal blog in some ways, but cooler than either. Needs more content, and more visitors, but that'll come.

RED MEAT - Oh my. I imagine there is a FBI file on the artist. I never, ever want to meet him. But I will glory in his comic strip. Brilliance and intelligence wrapped up in the tattooed skin of a circus freak and tied with a bow made of blown O-rings.

Imparte.com - Rich's site. Not going to talk about it until he says I can. But go visit anyway.